Nobel and Pulitzer Prize-winning author John Steinbeck turned his friend Ed Ricketts (1897-1948) into the colorful “Doc” character in his classic novel Cannery Row, but it's the real Ed Ricketts whose spirit animates this remarkable film. Ricketts was a pioneer of ecology as a scientific discipline, and his book Between Pacific Tides remains the primary reference on west coast marine invertebrates. Between The Tides follows retired marine biologist Bud Laurent on a quest to reconnect with some old friends, naturalists whose lives embody the sense of wonder and free spirited curiosity that made Ricketts a great scientist and “The Renaissance Man of Cannery Row.”

“Wonderful! I really appreciated your selection of naturalists who are not academics, but like Ricketts, are people who are driven by curiosity and the excitement of just looking, wondering, and learning -- and adding to our understanding and knowledge. I loved this film. It has been on my mind all day.”

John Pearse, Professor EmeritusDepartment of Ecology and Evolutionary BiologyUniversity of California, Santa Cruz

"This film captures the pull to the sea that inspires so many of us in marine science. Ultimately, Between The Tides is about the universal human quest for meaning."

Charles GoodrichAuthor of "Going to Seed: Dispatches from the Garden"Silverfish Review Press

Peter Coonradt's film Between The Tides is the story of former marine biologist Bud Laurent's quest to "come full circle" and re-attach himself to his past, and perhaps to himself. Laurent uses the works and philosophy of prototypical ecologist Ed Ricketts as a thread to visit and reflect with some remarkable people—folks living “an Ed Ricketts kind of life”—who call the Pacific Coast their home. These are people we would like to know, and deeper down would like to become. Transport these folks back in time 70 years, and they would have been right at home in Ricketts’s lab group, bantering with John and Carol Steinbeck, Joseph Campbell, John Cage, and Bruce and Jean Ariss. It’s Laurent, his friends, and others like them who keep the spirit of the lab group alive. Watch this film and you will be reminded of a line by Craig Johnson: “You must be worthy … the Old Ones speak with you.”

Michael J. LannooAuthor of “Leopold’s Shack and Ricketts’ Lab: The Emergence of Environmentalism”University of California Press